Adobe>
20 March 2023
The new Working Paper The Emergence of Digital Human Rights Tracking Tools and Databases published by our Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) identifies convergences, challenges and best practices related to innovative digital human rights tracking tools and databases.
The author Domenico Zipoli questions, in the paper’s 24 pages, whether the current international human rights system would benefit from more effective measures of data collection and digital tracking. He does so by analysing 15 selected information management tools developed by different stakeholders – providing for each tool dedicated hyperlinks, its main functions, a list of stakeholders responsible for the administration of the tool, a list of main users as well as specific challenges.
‘This publication is an important step towards assessing the value of digitalization for a more systemic approach to human rights monitoring and implementation’ explains Dr Zipoli, Project Coordinator at the Geneva Human Rights Platform.
‘This paper will be of interest to human rights software developers who lack comparative studies, international and regional human rights bodies, and national human rights actors, including human rights defenders and rights holders who deserve to be better informed on these tools’ benefits and potential impact on privacy’ he adds.
Geneva Academy
CCPR Centre>
The development of digital human rights tracking tools and databases is a potentially significant step forward for the realisation of human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the national level. The global interest in such software and the maturity of available tools indicates that it is only a matter of time before these are the rule, rather than the exception. However, it is still early days with little empirical evidence of their true practical value.
‘Whilst the trend is expanding, we still lack coordination, exchange of good practices and challenges among different tool developers and users. Our aim is to fill this specific gap’ underlines Dr Zipoli.
‘We also hope that this publication will improve knowledge exchange between software developers and policymakers using such tools and databases, thus fostering cooperation between the two categories of human rights actors’ he adds.
Adobe>
The publication of this Working Paper marks the start of a one-year GHRP-led initiative dedicated to the study of digital human rights tracking tools and databases – supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Adobe
Our new research brief examines the complex relationship between digital technologies and their misuse in surveillance, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.
Adobe
Our recent research brief series explores how the United Nations' human rights system can enhance its role in early warning and conflict prevention.
Adobe Stock
The event, as part of the AI for Good Summit 2025 will explore how AI tools can support faster data analysis, help uncover patterns in large datasets, and expand the reach of human rights work.
Adobe Stock
This seminar explores how national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up can better integrate the capacities, data, and experiences of local and regional governments in advancing human rights implementation and reporting.
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.
ICRC
Participants in this training course will gain practical insights into UN human rights mechanisms and their role in environmental protection and learn about how to address the interplay between international human rights and environmental law, and explore environmental litigation paths.
Adobe
This initiative wishes to contribute to better and more coordinated implementation, reporting and follow-up of international human rights recommendations through a global study on digital human rights tracking tools and databases.
CCPR Centre
The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
Geneva Academy